Equities Markets Colour August With Mixed Performance

As the month of August came to an end, the monthly report by Cytonn Investments shows that the Equities Markets snailed through the month with mixed performance.

The NASI and the NSE 25 gained 4.8 and 5.4 percent respectively. The NSE 20 declined by 0.5 percent during the month.

“The Equities market performance was driven by gains in the banking stocks” said Cytonn in the report.

The highest gains in the banking stocks were realized in the Co-operative Bank of Kenya at 13.3 percent, Equity Bank at 12.6 percent, ABSA at 10.6 percent and KCB Group at 7.6 percent.

During the first week of September, however, Equities were in an upward trend with the NASI, NSE 20 and NSE 25 registering gains.

NASI gained 0.4 percent while NSE 20 and NSE 25 gained 3.4 and 1.2 percent respectively. The performance of the three indices during the week took their year-to-date performance to losses of 16.3, 30.1, and 21.4 percent for the NASI, NSE 20 and NSE 25 respectively.

“The NASI performance during the week was driven by the gains realized in the large-cap stocks,” Cytonn added.

The largest gains during the week were witnessed from the Standard Chartered Bank with 8.0 percent, the East African Breweries Limited with 7.7 percent and the British American Tobacco with 1.8 percent.

“However, the performance were watered down by losses in other large-cap stocks,” added Cytonn.

The largest losses during the week came from Bamburi Cement with 2.9 percent Equity Group with 2.2 percent and Diamond Trust Bank with 1.5 percent.

For the month of August, the overall turnover of equities declined by 23 percent to 96.6 million US dollars from 125.5 million US dollars recorded in July.

The month of August saw foreign investors turning into net buyers with a net buying position of 1.8 million US dollars compared to a net selling position of 49.8 million US dollars recorded in July.

Equities turnover as the month of September kicked off in increased by 8.7 percent to 27.4 million US dollars from 25.5 million US dollars the previous week.